Sony plans to put 3D televisions in homes by the end of next year
 

3D technology looks set to hit the home consumer market next year, with Sony today announcing plans to sell 3D televisions globally by the end of next year.

Sony's decision to throw its weight behind the technology will be an important boost for the 3D industry, which has so far focused mainly on cinemas. British Sky Broadcasting has said it would introduce a 3D satellite channel in the UK next year, but it had been unclear whether there would be equipment available with which to view it.

More on this here.

Andrew

Actually, I know it must look like I don't get out nearly enough ... but here's a blast from the past. From the Dec 1998 / Jan 1009 issue of Australian "Marketing" magazine.

Interestingly, the mentioned web site www.c3d.com is still running, which is quite something in itself for an item from 10 years ago.

Andrew

Well Sony needs something to jump start TV sales, with that division reporting a 1.3 billion dollar loss recently (see: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/digital-v...-oled-tvs.html).

Somehow I doubt that this will be it, but who knows?

My only comment is Sony has got to get a few clues as to what the marketplace wants - 3D TV sounds cool, but they have to bring it to market with CONTENT or content creation tools... otherwise it's just an expensive "toy" (not brilliant in this economy...).

IMO, just watching how Sony is doing things, they need some new vision. The EXMOR "R" sensor is a huge jump in performance, and took about one year from unveiling to make it into just a small portion of Sony's released cameras. Instead of showing up throughout the line, none of the released cams have the manual features that would make the camera appeal to a wider market... emphasis is on "EASY", not professional... I won't even comment on the release of 6 new DSLR's with not a single one including video... and apparently none with the "R" CMOS either. Maybe next year...

The content must be down to the broadcasters, but (as with HD) it's a little bit of a chicken and egg situation. No content, why buy the set? No sets, why bother producing in 3D?

In the UK, one 3D channel has already been announced from the main satellite broadcaster - Sky to launch 3D TV in 2010 following record Sky+HD growth

For what it's worth I've been on 3 concert 3d shoots in the past month with 2 more planned for this month, you can't flip the tv on now without seeing that some movie or another is playing in 3d. I think the content is beginning to be put out there and I think that more 3d TV's will continue to further that demand. I believe that it will be similar to the adoption of HD, slow at first with a lot of people whining about how it's a gimmick and doesn't make anything better, until they see the sales, and in a matter of 3 years it will be insisted upon, maybe even in 5 years you'll be able to see your local news in 3d. On the other hand I really thought that HD-DVD was going to win the battle, so maybe I should just steer clear of prognostication.

I always thought it was going to be Blu-Ray because it had a much cooler logo. But I digress ...

Andrew

Can we really say that HD is fully adopted in the marketplace?

Is it time for another format upgrade?

Pretty soon it will be "ultraHD" with 4000pix

It seems like the manufacturers are going ahead with or without the consumer.

Most folks barely know what Blu-ray is or hardley care about the visual difference.

I feel like a curmudgeon here but this space has been a mess for quite a while now, is it really a good idea to add more variables?

A Newsweek issue a few weeks ago had an article on a Panasonic 3D TV which will be available very soon. No mention on price, but they guesstimated pretty high.

EDIT: Found it http://www.newsweek.com/id/211747

Yeah, great idea, lets throw out something new because after all, HD is now
so widely entrenched with consumers......so we better put out something
new so all those HD sets are useless and they have to buy new 3D sets
and some new player that can play the new 3D disks, and all the video
people better buy the new 3D cameras and computers that can edit 3D video
and oh yeah, remember to upgrade your NLE and plug ins to 3D functioning ones.
It never ends.........

3D support for gaming PCs on 3D TVs might be immediate. Nvidia GPUs already have software to support stereo rendering.

2010 will definitely be the 3D year.
You can display and create 3D (better say stereoscopic) content very easily since years.
Only now it seems there is a consensus about 3D movies in theater.
Recently we get several big buster movies (Shrek , harry potter, Coraline, ) released in 3D in theater.
We still are in an era where many tools are free (or very cheap), but expect the market to be locked very soon by some big shots.
A Zalman 3D monitor is about $200, you can build big screen theater with 2 cheap DLP and a pair of polarised glasses (about 50$).
Virtualdub is free, windows media encoder is free, Stereo movie maker is free, Stereoscopic player cost less than 50$, polarized glasses (linear or circular) cost around $10. Metallic screen are cheap too.
no reason to wait. make your family movies/pictures in 3D !

I just don't see 3D taking off in living rooms across the country anytime in the foreseeable future. Heck, HD is still struggling to take hold. There's just a whale of a lot of folks out there still watching SD material exclusively - even folks that own HDTVs. I live in rural Minnesota, and the cable-TV company out here still doesn't even offer any HD content whatsoever, nor do they even have any plans to do so (but they still charge an arm and a leg)!

Ya, that's kind of what I was getting at in my own sarcastic way.

Here's one thing that probably will keep "3DTV" from catching on - people go to the theater to take a break, sit down for an hour or two and do something "different"... how many people are going to be sitting down in their family/living/entertainment/bedroom (wherever their TV is) and be able to sit uninterrupted...

Not to mention the fact that the average "installation" of a TV consists of finding a place to set it down... to get anything close to a "theater" experience requires a room set up properly.

While it may not be possigle to buy a non-HD TV, as Robert points out... the content and motivation to demand that content from the end user just isn't as robust as it really needs to be to put the technology over the top.

I see the improved picture quality, but I also see improvements in SD picture quality - it's fascinating to me that when you see a BR promo, they crank the volume and apparently processed the picture so it looks BETTER even on an SD playback device... rather ironic that they are trying to sell the improvements, yet are able to "improve" the results playing back from DVD... and I can always tell which channels have upgraded their cameras/studio equipment to "HD" - the improved PQ travels through the entire system, right down tothe final "SD" delivery...

Returning to the topic... while 3DTV is certainly intrigueing, I don't see the "draw" that will make a large numer of people run out to buy this... sure those with an existing home theater might "upgrade", but how big is that market nowadays?